Public and Private funding
Private funding can be unreliable as its run usually by a family or person with a lot of money that they use to help fund different educational and artistic projects, and their funding application is based on how passionately the applicant is about the project rather than looking specifically and at the projects actual income. Also a private funder will look for applicants who will provide in interesting story from the press to gain publicity. They can sometimes give very large awards, others are strictly for small local projects. They are more willing to source of start-up or experimental funds and also they can be much more flexible in responding to unique needs and circumstances. They can often provide alternative forms of assistance, i.e., software/hardware donations, materials, expertise, etc. They can generally be much more informal and willing to help with the proposal process. But in general there are alot less applications send to private funders than there are to public funders.
Public funding can be much more bureaucratic and they focus on functions usually impacting significant groups in society. They have the most money and more likely to award large grants/contracts. They are more likely to pay all project cost and/or cover indirect costs. They make is easier to find information about and to stay current on project needs/interests. Also application processes and deadlines are public information and very firm.
So in the instance of the Miskin Theatre we would look public funding due to it being an educational establishment, but if all else fails then we’d move to finding a private funder, even though they are historically harder to obtain.
